29 October 2012

Did you miss me last week? As I explained on my Facebook page, I decided to take the week off from this blog to get caught up on my family blog. I was about four months behind! It worked out well, I got nine posts published, some of them with as many as 73 pictures, and now I am only a little less than 2 months behind. Yay!

But it's good to be back here sharing fun recipes with you. Even though I wasn't posting last week, I sure was cooking. I think I made at least 7 recipes last week that are blog-worthy. As promised, here is a fun Halloween-themed treat. I was signed up to bring snacks to my daughter's preschool on Monday. I wanted to do something with a Halloween theme, but nothing freaky or scary like severed fingers or bloody eyeballs. I also wanted it to be somewhat healthy; nothing that was pure candy or cookies. I did some searching around and found some adorable white chocolate-covered banana pops that look like ghosts at Gina's Skinnytaste. While hers were dipped in white chocolate, one of the commenters mentioned making them with yogurt instead. I thought that was genius. Same result, but healthier. So that's how I made mine.

Boo-nana Yogurt PopsIngredients:12 bananas32 oz. carton vanilla yogurt48 mini chocolate chipsPopsicle sticksDirections:Spread parchment or wax paper on two baking sheets. Open carton of yogurt and stir it well to remove any lumps.One at a time (so they don’t brown), cut each banana in half. Insert the popsicle stick into the cut end. Dip the banana half into the yogurt container. Pull it out and let any excess yogurt drip off. Place two mini chocolate chips on it for eyes. Lay it on the baking sheet. Repeat with remaining bananas.Place baking sheets in freezer on a level surface. Freeze for several hours or until solid. Keep frozen until ready to eat. Eat quickly, as they are not pretty when they melt!Makes 24 pops.

These were a huge hit. Lena reported that her classmates liked them and her teacher wrote on Facebook wall saying that she liked them too. I didn't need the full 24 for the class, so Lena has been asking for the leftovers every morning for breakfast.

The other thing I changed from Gina's recipe was that she cut her bananas into fourths. I thought they were just fine cut in half. You can probably coat more than 24 halves with that amount of yogurt. I did have some yogurt left over, but not much, and I'm not sure how many more I could have done. The only problem I had with them was that some of the sticks wanted to come out as I was pulling the banana out of the yogurt. I used a spoon to support the banana and then the stick froze in place during freezing so it wasn't that much of a problem.